Facebook cans regional networks

With 350 million users worldwide to keep happy, Facebook is always monitoring its operations. And the site’s creator is planning a big change to help people keep the information they want to be private as just that – private.

“We have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information,” Mark Zuckerberg said in an open letter on the social networking site. “Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.”

Zuckerberg said that as the site has grown, some of its regional networks (which can include countries such as India and China) now have millions of members.

“We’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy,” he added.

“The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.”

“We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload.”

Following the update that removes regional networks, Facebook users will be asked to create new settings and review and update their privacy settings.

“We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customise them for yourself,” Zuckerberg said.